Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings (known as “e-meetings”), training, or presentations via the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the Internet. Attendees to the web conference may access the conference by clicking on a link distributed by e-mail (meeting invitation) to enter the conference.
Web conferences may involve interaction among the participants, such as between a speaker or a presenter and the audience. The interaction may include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter. In some cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, while pointing out information being presented onscreen, and the audience can respond over their own telephones.
A feature of many web conferences is the ability to share the contents of a presenter's computer screen with the attendees via a web interface and/or the Internet. For example, a presenter may present information to an audience of attendees by sharing the contents of his or her computer screen via a web conferencing tool. The presenter may share the entire desktop area of his or her computer screen or may share only a specific application, such as Microsoft® PowerPoint to show a presentation. By sharing the presenter's computer screen (referred to as “screen sharing”), the attendees are able to view the presenter's computer screen to see the same content the presenter sees.
Screen sharing is currently accomplished using one of the following two methods. The first method involves capturing the screen of the presenter, sending it to the web conference server, which then sends it to the participants. The second method involves the presenter uploading content to be shared (e.g., files, images, etc.) to the web conference server in advance of presenting it. The presenter then controls when and which of the uploaded content to be shared. The web conference server can more quickly send the content to the participant screens since it does not need to be captured from the presenter's screen.
The first method results in a time delay between when the presenter views the materials on his/her computer screen and when the audience views the materials on their computer screens. For example, the presenter may be sharing the bottom part of a document among the audience. When the presenter views the content on the next page of the document, there is a time lag between when the presenter views the next page and when the audience views it on their computer screens. Such a time lag may cause the audience to not follow the presentation of the presenter, especially when the presenter is speaking and pointing out information that is not currently visible for the audience. The second method, while faster, since the screen does not need to be captured from the presenter, does not allow for ad hoc sharing of applications or content from the presenter's screen. Furthermore, there is still a time delay between when the presenter views the content and when the audience views it on their computer screens since the web conference server has to send the content to the participant screens.